


the trouble yukhei is in

by euigeon



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Friends With Benefits, M/M, a teaspoon of markhei if u r into that, no vivid depiction of doing the deed because i CANT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-04 17:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15152420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/euigeon/pseuds/euigeon
Summary: Sundays always start with Yukhei alone in his apartment. So, naturally, he has a hard time trying to figure out why Jungwoo is still there when he wakes up.





	the trouble yukhei is in

**Author's Note:**

> warnings: unedited, unbeta'd, rushed, sucky grammar, sucky ending, sucky everything lol
> 
> UGH i miss lucas and jungwoo (separately) ((also together))

It starts off peacefully; calm even, without Yukhei knowing that he’s standing in the middle of the eye of a storm. It’s the moment before it all goes to hell; before everything crashes and burns right in front of his eyes without any way to salvage the situation. It’s the moment when Yukhei’s trying to figure out if there’s a need to stop _it. This. Him? Himself?_

Yukhei always knows to end it before it gets remotely serious. He knows not to cut a tree by its trunk, not even to pull it from its roots. Yukhei knows never to plant _anything_ in the first place, knows he won’t have the strength for something as serious as a long-term commitment.

Yukhei pins Jungwoo on his bed knowing that, like the others, Jungwoo wouldn’t be any different from the all the people he’s brought home. He kisses Jungwoo believing it’ll be the last, moans his name knowing he’ll never have to hear it again, even cuddles him knowing he’ll be gone in an hour or two. Three, tops.

He believes in all of this while Jungwoo slowly roots himself on Yukhei’s skin, burns himself on Yukhei’s mouth, engraves himself in Yukhei’s mind without Yukhei knowing it himself.

 

 

 

Yukhei ends up waking up earlier than he usually does on a Sunday morning, sitting on the tall chair across one of the last people he’s expecting to see behind his kitchen counter.

The intruder turns to reach for one of the two mugs he’s prepared and grabs the handle on the coffee pot. “I hope you at least remember my name, Yukhei,” he teases playfully as he pours freshly brewed coffee in the cup. What Yukhei can’t remember is the last time he used that coffee brewer and where he even got the coffee beans to make the coffee.

Yukhei watches him intently; can tell that despite him meaning it as a joke that he’s anxious to know whether or not Yukhei remembers his name. “I wasn’t _that_ drunk, Jungwoo.”

The corners of Jungwoo’s mouth twitch upwards and Yukhei would have missed that small smile if he isn’t paying close attention. “How do you like your coffee in the morning?” Jungwoo asks.

Yukhei shrugs. “Black.”

Jungwoo purses his lips in distaste as he places the mug on top of a saucer and slides it towards Yukhei’s side of the counter. “Bitter?” Jungwoo takes his own sugary and creamy cup of coffee in his own hands and watches as Yukhei sips on his own drink.

This is definitely not Yukhei’s typical Sunday morning.

 

 

 

This is how Yukhei’s regular Sunday show goes:

He wakes up, most often stark naked, most often in the comfort of his own bedroom around 10 in the morning, alone with his apartment cleared of any alien items that might have been brought inside by whoever he had over the night before. Waking up in another person’s bedroom isn’t too unusual as well, but Yukhei has always preferred to collect his things and leave at an ungodly hour before the person stirs.

No one has ever stayed over and he never thought he had to either. Sunday always starts with him alone, so, naturally, Yukhei has a hard time trying to come up with a reason as to why Jungwoo is still in his apartment.

_Maybe he’s lost?_

“Where did you say you were from again?” Yukhei tries to ask in the most casual way as he watches Jungwoo skillfully move eggs on the skillet.

“Well, I used to live in Japan because my parents worked there. I don’t think I told you that last night,” Jungwoo says without taking his eyes off the pan. “But if you’re asking where I’m staying at the moment, I live, like, two bus stops away.” _He isn’t lost; probably knows how to navigate through Seoul more than I do._ “And, oh, by the way,” he turns and pulls on the familiar button up loosely hanging on his petite frame. “I borrowed the shirt you wore last night and put mine in the wash. Do you mind?”

_So, he’s a freeloader._

Jungwoo turns the heat off and moves the eggs from the pan to the two plates where spam and rice had already been prepared. He carefully sets them down side by side in front of Yukhei’s mug. Yukhei’s gaze catches on the shiny luxurious branded watch around Jungwoo’s wrist when the latter rolls the sleeves of Yukhei’s shirt back.

_Joke is on me, he’s probably fucking loaded._

Yukhei snaps out of his thoughts when he realizes Jungwoo has been eyeing him inquisitively from spacing out. “Right. Your clothes. Yeah, no. That’s – uh, fine.”

“Thank you,” Jungwoo says as he gestures for Yukhei to start eating the breakfast he had prepared.

They talk over breakfast the same way Yukhei talks to his friends – comfortable – like he’s known him for a long time. They talk about how Jungwoo met their mutual friend, Mark, about Jungwoo’s major in Korean studies, about Yukhei’s part-time work at the library and how the librarian hates his guts for always being so loud, which are topics they have probably talked about the night before, but have trouble remembering that morning. None of them seem to mind anyway.

Then Jungwoo washes the dishes as Yukhei gets his clothes out of the dryer, he takes a long warm bath in Yukhei’s shower, taking Yukhei along with him, leaves his phone number on Yukhei’s fridge, and even manages to convince Yukhei to walk him out to the bus stop.

“Don’t be a stranger,” Jungwoo says with that mischievous smile just right before he boards the bus.

 _He’s trouble._ Yukhei nods to himself as he watches Jungwoo’s bus drive away.

 

 

Maybe it’s different because if the circumstances of how they met are different, they’d be very good friends.

Yukhei knows this because he ends up seeing Jungwoo more than he intends to and hangs out with him the same way he hangs out with his other friends. It turns out that he doesn’t even need to call Jungwoo first for them to meet again. All it takes is an invitation from Mark to hang out on another Saturday night.

When Jungwoo excuses himself to the bathroom, Mark takes his opportunity to put Yukhei on the hot seat. “I’m surprised you’re still here,” he says inquisitively as he sips on his first glass of beer.

Yukhei chooses to play dumb. He glances at his watch and shrugs. “It’s early. Are you already drunk, Mark? It’s literally 8 in the evening, get yourself together.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Mark rolls his eyes and lightly punches Yukhei on the arm. “You usually avoid your hookups like the plague.”

That’s half-true. Yukhei makes sure he doesn’t even have to avoid them because he hooks up with people he won’t see often. It takes much less effort.

“You invited me over without telling me that he was coming,” Yukhei says. “Besides, he’s cool, I guess. I don’t mind.”

“He thinks you’re nice,” Mark says. “He kind of likes you. I think you kinda like him more than you let on too.” It’s supposed to sound casual or nonchalant, but really, all it sounds like to Yukhei is a warning. A red flag.

Whatever it is doesn’t make Yukhei say _no_ when Jungwoo invites him over to his apartment later in the night, saying something about "making it even."

They watch a movie on Jungwoo’s laptop for a while on Jungwoo’s bed, and even though it seems like an innocent movie date, everything else is pointing to the other direction, like the hand on Jungwoo’s thigh and Jungwoo’s fingers playing with the hem of Yukhei’s shirt.

If this was someone else, the night would end when the movie does, and Yukhei would go home and sleep alone in his own flat, but _Jungwoo is different_ , they are good friends, and maybe just a bit more than that.

 

 

 

They don’t stop at "making it even." Jungwoo invites Yukhei to go for lunch or coffee in between Yukhei’s office breaks and Jungwoo’s study sessions, and as much as Yukhei really doesn’t want to admit it, he enjoys this arrangement a whole fucking lot.

Sometimes, Jungwoo invites himself over on random days and tries to convince Yukhei to tour him around the city, until he figures out that Yukhei was literally just like him, a foreigner, several years ago, and they decide to just get lost in the city and enjoy themselves wherever they end up at.

Jungwoo is adventurous. Jungwoo loves watching movies. Jungwoo is afraid of heights but will never back down from spicy food. _Everyone likes Jungwoo_ is what Yukhei comes to know after spending so much time with him. Yukhei likes him a lot too.

And even when his mind is telling him to end it and to walk away before he gets reeled in deeper, _Jungwoo becomes Yukhei’s one last time again and again._ Yukhei just wishes it would never end.

 

 

 

They don’t talk about whatever they’re doing because Yukhei is too much of a wimp to bring it up, so he thinks that the world comes into a screeching halt when Jungwoo becomes the brave one to talk about it.

“Ever done the ‘friends with benefits’ thing before?” Jungwoo asks randomly while they’re walking the streets with ice cream in each of their hand.

Yukhei tries not to make it obvious that he almost chokes on his plastic spoon. “Once, I guess,” Yukhei says truthfully once he composes himself. “It wasn’t that long though. We cut it off after a month or so. Wasn’t exactly an ideal friendship.”

“You still talk?”

Yukhei thinks about it for a second. “Yeah. A lot,” he laughs.

Jungwoo hums in thought as he puts a spoonful of cookie dough ice cream in his mouth, looking like he’s trying to come up with names in his head. “It doesn’t seem like it ended badly if you two still talk to each other.”

There’s a tinge of bitterness when Yukhei chuckles. “Yeah well, you get over your feelings if you try hard enough,” Yukhei shrugs. “Which is why I promised never to subject myself in that kind of torture ever again. At least, not with someone I know I’d have complicated feelings for. It’s never going to end well. Same reason why I don’t do serious relationships.”

Jungwoo looks lost for a moment, spacing out on the road in front of them. “Then, _this,_ ” he motions for the small space between the two of them, “what we’re doing, you’re okay with it?” He looks up at Yukhei pensively. “Whatever we are doing?”

Yukhei pauses and blinks at Jungwoo, gulps thickly when he can’t answer immediately when he’s supposed to know the answer to that question when he’s asked.

The truth is, Yukhei had thought about this _thing_ with Jungwoo going another direction – a more serious route – and he thought he was so stupid for assuming that it had been an option, because here they are, and Jungwoo looks like he doesn’t really want anything more than what they’re doing.

Yukhei answers, “Yeah. It’s good. We’re good. This is good.”

Yukhei notices how there’s a strange, awkward beat that passes before Jungwoo bounces up again with a cheeky grin and another bite to his almost melted ice cream. “Alright. At least we know for sure what this is. And what we are.”

 

 

 

Sex is sex and it’s always exhilirating with Jungwoo. Better than most of Yukhei’s hookups because it’s always fun and interesting and Jungwoo is so attractive that it blows Yukhei’s mind a lot of times how it’s always so hot and amazing with him.

Yukhei isn’t sure if it’s part of the deal, but Jungwoo sometimes acts all domestic with Yukhei and sometimes, Yukhei can’t help but just do the same. If it’s intentional, he can’t really tell, but he can feel it’s sincere and genuine and Yukhei just can’t deny that it become a part of his routine already.

Things like searching up good Japanese restaurants for Jungwoo or grabbing Yukhei his favorite pastry treat from the coffee shop ends up making Yukhei more confused than ever because this isn’t something that people with their kind of relationship would do. Yes, being mindful of each other is reasonable. Maybe even occasionally being thoughtful doesn’t even cross a line, but whatever they are doing does.

If Jungwoo thinks it’s odd, he doesn’t bring it up so Yukhei doesn’t either; lets himself succumb to the satisfaction and pleasure of having Jungwoo around – all the sex, and maybe the domestic thing as well.

But on one particularly stressful night for Jungwoo, after finding out that he has skipped four meals, Yukhei forces him out of his apartment, out of reach from all the papers and textbooks littered across Jungwoo’s floor, to go out for dinner. Jungwoo saying that he’d been craving for a burger in passing a few nights before had Yukhei researching the best burger joint that can be found near Jungwoo’s campus, which is a good fifteen-minute walk from his complex.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” Jungwoo mumbles, tucking his hands inside the pockets of his hoodie as he steals a glance at Yukhei beside him as they walk. “Isn’t there some sort of set of unspoken rules for relationships like ours? Like, no dates. No sleeping over. No cuddling. No affection… things like that?”

Yukhei hums and turns to look at Jungwoo with a smirk. “You, like, broke half of those rules on the first night. You slept over at my apartment and even washed your clothes in my house.”

Jungwoo scoffs. “We had a rough night! Mark spilled his drink all over me. And you said you didn’t mind.”

“I couldn’t kick you out then,” Yukhei laughs at the scowl on Jungwoo’s face. “I was too flustered. People I sleep with usually don’t stay for cuddles or breakfast. Besides, I think we’re way past the red card, if you’re going to bring up those rules right now. Does it still matter to you?”

“I guess not,” Jungwoo says quietly, like he’s shrinking into himself. It’s weird and it makes Yukhei feel uncomfortable.

There’s a bit of worry bubbling in Yukhei’s stomach so he tries reassuring Jungwoo (and maybe himself as well) that he (they) have nothing to worry about. “Don’t read into it too much, I guess? I like taking care of people that matter to me.”

Which is nothing but the truth. Because Jungwoo has inched himself into Yukhei’s life, wiggled into a space that Yukhei was so sure couldn’t be filled out by anyone, and he might have accidentally taken up a way bigger part of Yukhei’s heart than he should.

Jungwoo hangs his head low and laughs to himself. “You’re probably taking me out to dinner because you don’t want my ass to get smaller.”

“You got me.” Yukhei smiles and pulls Jungwoo closer, putting an arm around his shoulders as they walk the streets.

 

 

 

“So, you and Jungwoo,” Mark trails off as he sips on his iced coffee. They’re at a coffee shop on one particular hot noon because Mark told him he feels like he hasn’t seen Yukhei in a long while. “You’re spending a hell of a lot of time with him.”

Yukhei lifts an eyebrow, amused. “Jealousy isn’t a good look on you.”

“I’m not jealous,” Mark puts his hands in front of him defensively. “Concerned is more like it.”

“What’s there for you to be concerned about?” Yukhei asks with furrowed brows as he watches the steam from his coffee go up in the air.

“Well, are you two together?” Mark asks. Yukhei has a hunch on where this is going.

“No, but –”

 _“_ Yukhei _._ ”

Yukhei frowns. “Yeah, we’re fooling around, but he doesn’t have feelings for me,” Yukhei clarifies, but Mark looks like he isn’t having any of it. “I don’t have feelings for him either.”

“That’s what you said the last time,” Mark sighs.

“And I mean it this time. Besides, I don’t think it would be that bad if I messed this up. I mean,” Yukhei pauses, watching Mark who looks on edge, waiting for what Yukhei’s about to say. “You and I are still friends.”

“You’re the worst.” Mark rolls his eyes. “Fine, let’s say that you have your feelings out of the way. What about Jungwoo?”

“What _about_ Jungwoo? He was the one who brought it up first.” When Mark looks at him in disbelief, Yukhei shrugs cluelessly. “He asked me if I was okay with it.”

“Did you ask him if he’s okay with it?”

“He asked me first. So, I thought–” Yukhei pauses, blinks at Mark glaring at him from the other side of the table. “I, well. Isn’t that supposed to be, I don’t know, a given?”

Mark looks at him, completely aloof and unimpressed. “God, Yukhei, you’re such a moron sometimes,” he mutters and leaves it at that.

 

 

 

The thing about being told to fix something is that you can never get it started unless you know the thing that you need to fix. So, no, Yukhei doesn’t ever bring whatever the issue is to light because he doesn’t know what he should be talking about. To him, everything that’s come to be his relationship with Jungwoo is crystal clear. Essentially, they are fuck buddies with a little bit more affection than normal. It couldn’t get any more straightforward than that.

“Are you doing anything over the holidays?” Yukhei asks from Jungwoo’s bed as he watches the latter move around the apartment. “Because the guys are renting a rest house and I thought you’d want to tag along. Mark’s there, of course. So is Jaehyun and Doyoung so you won’t really be out of place.”

Just as Yukhei finishes his sentences, Jungwoo pulls out the medium-sized duffel bag from the top shelf of his dresser and begins to stuff it with clothes. “I’d love to, but I’m actually booked for a flight to Japan in a few hours.” He glances at the wall clock across the room and smiles at Yukhei.

Yukhei sits up straight on the bed for a second and slumps again. “Oh. I didn’t know.”

Then pauses to look at Yukhei and shrugs. “It never came up.”

“Right,” Yukhei mumbles. Maybe Jungwoo would have told him if they were more than friends. “You’ll be home when the holidays are over, right?”

“No. I’ll be there for two weeks or so,” Jungwoo shakes his head. He finishes packing by shoving a couple of his binders and folders inside the bag and sets it on top of the table. “Try not to miss me too much,” Jungwoo says.

“Too late. I miss you already,” Yukhei retorts.

Jungwoo presses his lips into a tight smile as he picks up an oversized shirt on the floor and throws it onto Yukhei’s lap. “Maybe you can bring someone else to your trip or something. I’m sure you have a wide roster of hookups to choose from.”

Yukhei stares at Jungwoo wordlessly.

“I meant another booty call,” Jungwoo clarifies, standing in front of the bed, arms crossed on his torso.

“Oh,” Yukhei says eloquently, visibly deflating on the bed. “I haven’t really. Uh, I haven’t really been seeing anyone else or. I mean, slept with anyone else since we first – yeah.” Yukhei scratches the back of his neck. All of a sudden there’s a huge elephant in the room that’s hard to miss. “Have you?”

It takes Jungwoo five whole seconds before he answers. “I haven’t. I’m just saying. You can see other people if you want to. Isn’t that the essence of being friends with benefits? No emotional attachment? You can see whoever you want.” Jungwoo says with it so much uncertainty that Yukhei isn’t really sure if he should agree or not.

And Yukhei guesses that Jungwoo wouldn’t bring it up if he didn’t mean it.

“I’ll make a mental note of it then.”

Jungwoo smiles and sits back down on the bed beside Yukhei. “I have two and a half hours before I have to leave for the airport. Want to watch a movie before I leave?”

Yukhei says yes. Jungwoo puts on some romcom movie on his laptop that doesn’t even go past the one-hour mark before the laptop is closed shut and shoved off the bed to the floor, with the two pulling each other closer under the covers, making the most out of the short moment that’s left until Jungwoo leaves.

 

 

 

Jungwoo jokingly asks Yukhei if he wants to walk him to the taxi stop and ends up parting ways with each other at the airport at one in the morning, just right before Jungwoo goes into the check in.

“Hey, Yukhei?” Jungwoo says quietly when they’re standing just in front of the entrance. He looks up at Yukhei through his lashes. “We’ve broken too much rules.”

Yukhei furrows his eyebrows at this. “I thought that the rules didn’t matter to you?”

“They kind of do,” Jungwoo laughs. He casts his eyes down at the floor and avoids Yukhei’s gaze. “Let’s stop here,” he mumbles, barely audible for Yukhei to hear, but Yukhei has already learned to pay more close attention to Jungwoo, so it sounds so clear to him.

“What do you mean—”

“I think I need some time to think. I think you do too,” Jungwoo says finally, giving Yukhei one last kiss on the cheek and walks away.

 

 

 

Jungwoo doesn’t reply to any of Yukhei’s messages.

All 134 of them (yeah, Yukhei keeps count.) And Yukhei doesn’t really take it against Jungwoo; knows that Jungwoo should use his time to enjoy home and not exchange messages with a guy he’s sexually but not emotionally involved with. Why would he want to talk to the guy who fell in love when he clearly wanted everything to be strictly platonic?

He tries not to think about him; tries not to be reminded by anything about him.

Which just proves to be difficult because other people decide to remind him themselves. “Dude, are those scratches on your back?” Mark points it out when he’s about to put sunscreen on Yukhei. “What the actual f—”

“Can we not discuss it?” Yukhei cuts him off.

“Good thing you didn’t bring Jungwoo along,” Mark rolled his eyes, continuing to squirt the lotion on his palm and carefully applying it on the flat of Yukhei’s back. “God, that would be a nightmare.”

“Can we not talk about him?” Yukhei repeats.

Mark stops midway Yukhei’s back and asks, “Is there something wrong?”

Yukhei lets out a deep breath and slumps his shoulders. “I really don’t want to hear the ‘I told you so’ thing,” he says, knowing Mark would already get the gist of the whole thing.

Mark purses his lips and continues spreading the cream on Yukhei’s neck. “Promise me you’ll talk to him when he gets back.”

“What’s the point?” Yukhei mutters.

“There’s more to it than you think, Yukhei. I’m taking that you haven’t really discussed anything with Jungwoo yet,” Mark says. “Just talk to him. Tell him how you feel. And for the love of god, please ask him the same.”

 

 

 

Yukhei wakes up on a Sunday morning, one whole month after Jungwoo went on vacation, alone in his bedroom, and wants nothing more but to wake up to Jungwoo making coffee in his kitchen, lazily talking about the night before.

He wonders how it would be if he had been more hostile; if he stood his ground and kicked out Jungwoo as soon as he found him staying the night or if he knew how to run the other way when he realized Jungwoo was going to be different than everyone else.

Then he realizes that he doesn’t regret anything about their first night and wishes that he never agreed on _just_ being friends with benefits when Jungwoo asked.

 

 

 

Yukhei comes over unannounced at Jungwoo’s apartment after a whole day of running different scenarios in his head, trying to figure out how this confrontation could go.

Jungwoo opens his door and surprisingly reacts better than what Yukhei expects, beaming a smile and opening the door wider to invite him in. “Missed me?”

“Too much,” Yukhei sighs. When Jungwoo makes a move to pull him inside the apartment, he holds a firm grip on Jungwoo’s hand and pulls him the other way. “Actually, I was thinking maybe we could walk around the park. Maybe get dinner or something. My treat. I think we need to talk.”

Jungwoo looks thrown off, staring indifferently at Yukhei for a while before he smiles and says, “Okay. Give me a minute to change and we’ll talk.”

 

 

 

“You didn’t call me when I got back,” Jungwoo speaks up after minutes of incredible silence as they follow the stone walkway at the park.

Yukhei scratches at the back of head. “You didn’t reply to all of my other messages.”

“I had to sort everything out in my head,” Jungwoo says defensively. He skids to a stop just in front of a lamp post, illuminating a soft yellow glow in the darkness that does a good job hiding the tears welling in Jungwoo’s eyes.

“Then tell me about it,” Yukhei tells him. “I’m sorry for not asking you about it before. Just tell me what you think,” he says somewhat encouragingly, realizing that he should have done this from the very start.

“I got sick of putting on a brave face,” Jungwoo starts shakily, trying to read Yukhei for any initial reaction. Yukhei _hates_ how easily Jungwoo could read him. “Acting like I was fine with everything because you were. Especially when you were showering me with so much affection I could ever ask for.”

“It was a horrible idea,” Yukhei says. “I didn’t know why I thought it would work for me now. It didn’t work the first time,” he jokes in an attempt to lighten up the mood, which effectively makes Jungwoo break into a smile. “I’m sorry. You’re more than a friend, more than just sex. I like you a lot and I would really, really like to try again if you let me.”

Jungwoo smiles, stands on his toes as he presses a kiss on Yukhei’s lips.

Yukhei pulls him close and is glad that Jungwoo decided to root into him.

 

 

Jungwoo is the trouble he’s in.

**Author's Note:**

> im sorry you finished it
> 
> oh and the title is from a song  
> the trouble i'm in - twinbed  
> it's a really nice song!!


End file.
